Case Study

Multi-District Advertising Strategy

Challenge: Play Everywhere, Break Through the Noise

Our client, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party House Caucus independent expenditure committee, needed to flip 11 Republican-held seats in 2018 in order to take control of the chamber. The DFL House committee identified 20+ state house districts where a win for their candidate was possible, but far from certain.

Clarify had to generate ad creative that would get through to voters in these districts and help put DFL candidates over the top — in other words, creative with a unified message that was simultaneously customized for each of the 20+ districts (and roughly twice as many candidates). And we needed a way to produce this creative at scale, quickly and efficiently, customized for each target district, but without breaking the budget.

Adding to the challenge was a crowded media environment, featuring high-profile races for two U.S. Senate seats, the governorship, and multiple contested U.S. House seats, among other elections.

Method: creative strategy built on narrative and dynamic content

{The Minnesota DFL House Caucus has asked us not to reveal the methods of this work publicly. To request to view the full case study, just drop us a note telling us who you are.}

Results: High performance and multiple victories

The narrative-setting videos had completion rates north of 45% in some cases on key persuasion channels, including completion rates north 40% for voters expected to be soft Republican. Meanwhile, folding in the shorter proof point videos closer to Election Day helped keep the cost per view (CPV) stable as CPM rose.

Better yet, DFL candidates won 3 of the 4 districts with the highest overall view rates. And best of all, DFL candidates gained 19 seats to decisively take back the majority.